Green light for live seafood exports to China

FishPac, the world’s only approved oxygen-sustained live seafood airfreight transport system, has been given the go ahead to send shipments into all Chinese ports.

Chinese ports are now able to receive live aquatic animal shipments for the first time with IATA changes to special provision A302 removing the requirement of port of destination approval.

Cathay Pacific Airlines and Dragon Air Airlines have also received approvals to transport FishPac shipments into Chinese ports.

FishPac Managing Director John Curtain said his company had been waiting for China approval for several years.

The new IATA’s changes announced earlier this year would open many doors for lives seafood exporters shippers into the world’s biggest seafood market.

“It’s a significant opportunity,” said Mr Curtain.

Mr Curtain said operational issues still need to be addressed by both the shipper and consignee in China. However, the process is now a straight forward and repeatable procedure and no longer differs from any other country in the world.

Great potential

“Once approvals are in place, using FishPac is quite straight forward, given the process of paperwork, training, and certification never alters,” said Peter Rankin, FishPac’s Marine Biologist and Business Development Manager.

“We see great potential for the system for a multitude of aquatic animals to be shipped with FishPac, with a significant interest on those animals which simply cannot be shipped live with traditional methods, given they won’t survive,” said Mr Rankin. “FishPac allows these animals, including Green Lip abalone (Haliotis laevigata), to be transported live for the first time anywhere in the world, which is very exciting. There is a significant profit opportunity for those shippers wanting to look at pioneering these markets for themselves.”

Mr Curtain said cutting red tape globally is an industry-wide goal of the aviation and air freight industry.

Correct protocols

“To be able to do this, whilst not compromising safety or the validity of any FishPac shipment, is an important decision undertaken by IATA and one that we certainly welcome,” he said.

“The key now is to see shippers undertaking trial shipments to Chinese clients, which is being developed, and ensuring the correct protocols are in place by the consignee.

“If these are done correctly, then we expect there to be very few issues with FishPac equipment going in and out of China, and to see the growth of shipments to all Chinese ports increase exponentially in the next 4-6 years.”

The first shipments of Coral Trout Grouper (Plectropomus leopardus) are expected to be sent to China from Australia in the next 2-4 weeks.

FishPac is 100% Australian owned by FloatPac Pty Ltd. The FishPac system operates by sustaining live seafood with oxygen. FishPac systems have shipped over 300,000 bins of live seafood around the world.